Trying 3 Arrows Iron - UK Test Guide?

[FancyPants54]

Hi

I have been struggling to get my ferritin out of the long grass for years. I can force it up a bit now and then but I've never been optimal and often I'm well below optimal.

I have come across the excellent SlowDragon posts on 3 Arrows and I'm going to give it a try, for various reasons. But on the web site, there is a test results sheet to print and keep a note of test results on. We in the UK use different unit measurements and our full blood count doesn't necessarily have all the same markers on it.

Does anyone have a UK equivalent sheet of what we are striving to achieve by being optimal for our iron panel?

[Regenallotment]

I don’t have a sheet, hadn’t noticed it on that horrific website 🤣

I successfully raised my Ferritin with 3 Arrows. It took only 2 months, I was aiming for 100 and overshot to 140 and also went over range with my FT4 & FT3.

My starting point was between 50-70 it changes rapidly with my cycle as I have fibroids and very heavy periods, even on transexamic acid. I had struggled to get over 60 with liver twice a week, dark green veg, grass fed beef etc. I also tried Optifer Alpha and another ferritin heme supplement but these are 1/4 strength of 3 Arrows and had limited effect.

I hope that is useful. TiggerMe may have more info too. She got me onto it 🌱

[TiggerMe in reply to Regenallotment]

Above me I'm afraid let's put a shout out to humanbean

[TiggerMe in reply to TiggerMe]

How about this...

[TiggerMe in reply to TiggerMe]

These were my results having taken 1 three arrows a day, it bought all my other levels quite nicely into line though ferritin sitting at 60 the overall picture is good

Of course it takes a while to correct as red blood cells last 150+ days before regenerating

[FancyPants54 in reply to Regenallotment]

I've seen TiggerMe on the posts about it. Most helpful.

I'm menopausal so don't have the iron shedding issue, but I still can't raise my levels very well at all. Last test my serum iron was low too.

I know I must avoid over-doing iron which is why I hoped we had a UK chart.

My ferritin was 66.9 in August. That's about as high as I've ever got it.

My saturation index is 15% but the range is 16-50%

Folate 10.7, again the best it's ever been but still only halfway through range and I'm supplementing folate separately because I'm injecting B12 at the moment.

Do you think you overshot your FT4 and FT3 because your iron went up? That would be nice!

[Regenallotment in reply to FancyPants54]

I may have had a Hashi swing or/and the higher ferritin may have sorted what I had previously assumed to be poor DIO2 driven conversion.

I did read when trying to understand more about Iron Deficiency Without Anaemia (IDWA) which is what I think I had, that if ferritin remains low after menopause it’s advised to investigate where blood loss could be occurring e.g. bowel related possibilities. So definitely check with GP on that.

I’ve recently started IM B12 and have been taking B Complex and prior to that methyl folate too. So similar picture here.

Good luck 🌱

[FancyPants54 in reply to Regenallotment]

A very similar picture. I too take a B Complex. Blood in stools has been checked and was negative. I suspect I haven't been absorbing it very well. I don't absorb lots of things. Including through the skin, because my skin is very hypo. Dry, flaky, inert looking with lots of blemishes on the surface and under it. Not like my skin used to be at all.

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

This is a standardised sheet of where markers fall in different conditions which might help if you work backwards with it?

Ferritin needs to be 90-100 on any reference range.

Iron levels chart